“This is a grand victory for democracy and the rule of law. This recall attempt by political fraud groups and 'professional students' has been shunned by the people completely ... I thank the residents of the Nangang and Neihu Districts for their firm support for Tsai Cheng-yuan's contribution to their districts.

Although the majority of commercial movies produced and made locally are targeted toward the Taiwanese demographic, meaning that the plots are often not suited to reach an international audience, the slow proliferation of quality Taiwanese shorts is a cultural elevation that cannot be ignored.

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC, 交通部) rejected calls to relocate Taipei City's Taipei Songshan Airport (TSA, 松山機場) to New Taipei last week, saying such a move could result in aviation safety issues.

Much debate about the pros and cons of bringing the 2016 presidential election forward by a few months has centered on the prospect of making President Ma Ying-jeou a lame duck much earlier than usual, which would result in a prolonged power vacuum until the new head of state is inaugurated.

A 14-hour standoff at Kaohsiung Prison ended yesterday after six armed inmates shot themselves, leaving their two hostages unharmed. It was an astonishing and unprecedented incident that has focused public attention on the conditions in Taiwan's prisons. The Ministry of Justice is expected to release an investigation report today and a prison reform plan within a week, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday.

A video from a dashboard-mounted camera capturing the crash of TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 into the Keelung River in Taipei on Feb. 4 has been relayed by media outlets around the world. The video shows how the plane glided past tall residential buildings, barely clearing the rooftops, before it started to tilt steeply and hit an elevated road and a taxi with its left wing before finally plunging into the river.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid a visit with his mother Yoko to the grave of Nobusuke Kishi at Fuji Cemetery at Oyama in Shizuoka on Jan. 11. Yoko Abe is the only daughter of Kishi, the prime minister from 1957 to 1960 whose death wish was to amend Japan's pacifist constitution, which General Douglas A. MacArthur imposed on postwar Japan.

Most of us have heard the phrase “No news is good news.” Generally it means that a lack of news at least means nothing is going wrong. In a time when the world is potentially facing an Ebola outbreak, two terrorist groups that are the de-facto rulers of nations (ISIS and Boko Haram), a worsening standoff in Ukraine, a possible “Grexit” from the euro zone, a weak world economy and global climate change among other things, this phrase could not be truer.

The long-stalled Taipei Dome project has recently been under the spotlight after Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je promised to re-examine the controversial contract deal with the Farglory Group, which is responsible for the project.

When China raised the minimum salaries for Xi Jinping and the country's civil service personnel, as reported on Jan. 20, it was revamping some surprisingly low wages for public servants in the world's most populous country, from the very lowest rungs to the country's president.